Recently, Governor of the Italian Central Bank Fabio Panetta issued an implicit warning about the European Union's (EU) plan to use profits obtained from frozen Russian assets.
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| Most of the confiscated Russian assets are located in Belgium. (Source: Loop News) |
Mr. Fabio Panetta said that "weaponizing" the Euro risks damaging the attractiveness of the common currency and promoting rival currencies.
“Russia's special military operation in Ukraine is 'a clear reminder' of Europe's strategic interests when the EU has a common currency like the Euro. This power must be used wisely," the Governor of the Central Bank of Italy emphasized.
According to him, the increased use of the Yuan to pay for trade between China and Russia is proof of this.
Beijing has promoted the use of local currencies in countries affected by international sanctions, making it harder for them to pay for goods in dollars or euros.
The share of China's trade financed with the yuan has doubled in the past three years, helping the currency overtake the Euro to become the world's second most used currency in trade payments. commercial.
Mr. Panetta did not specifically mention the EU's plan to transfer to Ukraine the profits from Moscow's frozen assets. However, officials said his comments took these plans into account.
Italy has frozen a relatively small amount of Russian Central Bank funds. Most of Moscow's assets are stuck in Belgium, where the Central Securities Depository (Euroclear) holds about 191 billion Euros.
The EU is planning to take the extraordinary profits Euroclear made from fixed assets and give it to Ukraine. However, member states are expected to soon pass new regulations that would make it mandatory for the EU to seize these profits, but not actually transfer them to Kiev.
The United States, which currently holds about $5 billion in Russian assets, has pushed other member countries of the world's leading industrialized countries (G7) to go one step further and seize Russian assets themselves.
But Italy is among a number of EU member states, including Germany and France, that have expressed doubts about such a move and warned of the implications of confiscating assets belonging to a sovereign state, which under international law has the right to immunity.
